Flawless
by A Memory Of Wings
Summary: Amatsuka Kozue is a bitter genius. She torments the teachers, subtly shuns her classmates, and hates the world. But when she finds out Yuki's secret and blackmails him into being her genie she'll find out exactly why he's called The Prince.
1. Lovely Cursed

**CHAPTER ONE**  
_Lovely Cursed_

_The **MOON,** who is caprice itself, looked through the window of a young girl's room and said to herself, "I like this child." And softly she descended the staircase of clouds and passed softly through the window panes. Then she stretched herself over the young girl with the tenderness of a new mother and laid her colors upon the child's face._

_That's why the pupils of your eyes have always remained so colored, Kozue._

_It was while contemplating this visitor that your eyes became so strangely enlarged; and she clasped your neck so tenderly that you have retained forever the desire to weep_

_**&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&**_

"Ah, Mr. Sohma. I'm relieved I've found you."

The low, masculine tones of the familiar voice made Yuki turn away from the billboard, shifting the stack of fliers beneath his arm to compensate for the motion. A few slipped free and floated to the floor, rectangles of pale blue line pools on the white linoleum. He knelt to retrieve them, catching the last before it was scattered off down the school hallway by the breeze that passed in through the window.

"I'm sorry, have I disrupted you?"

"Not at all." Yuki rose to his feet, straightening his uniform jacket and managed to muster a polite smile that he felt to wary to give. "Is there something I can help you with, Head Teacher?"

Yamaguchi-sensei patted his brow with a square of linen, bestowing on Yuki that radiant good humor he only shared with the top students. A shallow mad who worried more for grades then students, he wasn't one the cursed boy admired but authority was authority.

"Yes, actually. I have a favor to ask of you."

Somewhere the bell rang, signaling the start of classes. So, he was late again. It had become a trend, arriving to classes after the bell. Ever since he took over a student council president.

"Yes?"

"There's a new student arrived. Well not new exactly. You see, she transferred out some time ago in order to attend a more prestigious private academy. However her family is having a bit of trouble so she's been re-enrolled in the school again. I'm the sure the adjustment will be a bit hard for her. I'd appreciate if you'd keep an eye on her."

"Does she really need help if she's attended this school before?"

"She's a very special student, you see. Possibly a genius in fact, I'm sure she'd benefit from association with someone of her caliber, if you understand." A painfully conspiratorial smile.

So that was it.

"Yes, Head Teacher."

"Wonderful, wonderful. Well, I won't keep you any longer. Do your best."

Yuki stared after his retreating back; face a mask as expressive as the chiseled features of a statue. Do his best? An ostentatious man. He put up the last of the fliers then went to return the stapler to the store room before making his way back to class. Already fifteen minutes into homeroom.

"Yuki, you're late." Uehara-sensei's voice held some measure of exasperation, frowning at Yuki were stood, framed in the classroom's entrance.

"I apologize." He bent his head with proper humility, lifting it on the teacher's sigh.

"I suppose. Please take a seat. As I was saying, please welcome Amatsuka Kozue. She's just transferred to our school." Yuki's progression to his desk came up short at the announcement. The transfer student? He turned to glance back at the girl that stood by Uehara-sensei's side. "Her mother is laboratory technician. I hope you'll all be courteous and make her feel at home."

The hair that waved and curled over her face was the color of molten copper, thick and hanging like a lion's mane to the back of her knees. She was fine boned, slenderly made and on the tall side, nearly meeting Yuki's own 5'7. Her skin was luminous pale and when she lifted her head her hair slid back to reveal her eyes to be equally sallow. A glacial silver, nearly colorless in pigmentation. Dahlia lips quirked into some imitation of a smile.

"Pleased, to meet you all."

"I heard she's got an IQ of two hundred."

"You're exaggerating, Saki. Why would someone that smart be at our school? They'd be in a university or something."

"Well, I think she seemed nice." Tohru smiled, radiant in her usual optimism.

"You're blinded by your own good personality." Arisa in toned sagely to Hanajima's quiet nod. "Did you see that smile? That girl's cold as ice, if you asked me. She gives me the creeps."

"Arisa!" Tohru admonished in shock. "You shouldn't say such mean things. You don't even know her."

"Yea? I bet you your cooking skills that I'm right. If she is, you have to make me lunch for the next week."

"A whole week!?"

"Yep. With three courses and everything."

"Me, as well." Hanajima interjected in that haunting, monotone voice of hers.

Tohru's fists trembled in indecision as she glanced back and forth between her two friends. Finally she let out a strained sound and pumped one hand into the air in determination. "Okay, then!"

"Great!" Arisa's grin went from ear to ear and she clapped Tohru on the back heartily. "Just remember, my favorite is sashimi."

"Or class is here, Arisa." Hanajima said, stopping before room 3-C.

"Oh, right. Later Tohru."

"Bye. Do your best." She waved as the Hanajima rolled open the classroom door and she an Arisa disappeared inside. The unsure sigh she'd held hostage in her throat liberated it once Arisa's gold tresses were no longer in view. Her fingers lifted and she toyed with her color, glancing over at Yuki who'd remained silent at her side. "What do you think?"

"About what?"

"About Miss Amatsuka."

She waited as a musing patience descended on him, leaving the rush of the students around them the only noise. "Well, she must be very smart. The Head Teacher told me so."

"The Head Teacher!?"

Yuki nodded. "He came to me this morning and asked me to help her if she has any trouble."

"Wow. That's pretty considerate of Yamaguchi-sensei. I didn't know he was so compassionate, to worry about a new students. That's great."

_Not really._ But there was no harm in letting her think what made her happier so Yuki didn't correct her assumption, just smiled indulgently.

"Anyway, I've never believed you could tell much about a person just from looking at them. So I couldn't say what sort of personality she has."

"I suppose your right. But if she's such a good student she couldn't really be mean, could she?"

Yuki relinquished a small laugh. "I guess not."

"Mm-hmm. I agree!"


	2. Fallen Angel Eyes

**CHAPTER TWO**  
_Fallen Angel Eyes_

_The Moon filled the whole room with luminous vapor, and all the living light thought and said: 'You shall suffer forever the influence of my kiss._

_You shall be beautiful in my fashion. You shall love that which I love and that which loves me: water, clouds, silence and the night; the immense green sea; the formless and multiform streams; the place where you shall not be; the lover whom you shall not know;_

_flowers of monstrous shape; perfumes that cause delirium; rats that shudder, swoon and curl up on pianos that groan like women, with a voice that is hoarse and gentle! _

**&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&**

She reminded him of a faery for some reason. Perhaps because, aside from Tohru, they were the only creatures he had ever been curious about. He was curious about her. The fact that she was seated just where he could see her from the corner of his eye didn't help. His attention was drawn, but to turn his head and look directly would be not just rude but embarrassing. So he was given snippets of her form, the hint of movements so that sometimes only parts of her were visible to him, the rest obscured by the limitations of peripheral vision.

She had her chin propped on the back of her hand, the mate of which held by the spine a hard cover book whose jacket had been removed. Her hair feathered against her cheek and her neck and when she tilted her head just so to focus on the words of the nearer page the light gleamed on her face and made her eyes shine in a lunar manner.

They were such a strange color.

Like vapor.

Or some sort of mist.

It was like….

Like….

He'd turned his head after all, involuntarily and the droning of the teacher had become a humming in the back of his mind like the whisper of a ghost. The same sort of chill must have imbued the girl because her head lifted and her gaze swung in his direction. Her faery eyes fixed on him with speculative intensity. Her eyebrows lifted in the parody of inquiry and she smiled a siren's smile. It looked to sweet to be real but he felt the blush rising none the less.

What was he thinking? What was he doing? That girl…

A thump sliced through the air like a fist through a screen door—the slam of Kozue's book against the top of the desk. The teacher broke off in the midst of his lecture, widening dark eyes with confused apprehension. A piece of chalk trembled in his fingers, a vibrating white wand.

"Yes, Miss Amatsuka. Do you have a question?"

"Not exactly." Her chair scraped with a shrill sound like dogs being dragged to their death as she rose, stroking fingers through her torrent of hair. "I was simply wondering if you realized that you translated that noun wrong. It's piety not pity. Righteousness by virtue of being religious devoted. In which case you've misrepresented the entire poem. The speaker is questioning Eros religious responsibility to the loveless individuals and not his sympathy for them. "

"I…well I…" a quick look was flashed around the classroom in search of a savior. There was non forthcoming, the class was silent and each eye was fixed on Kozue's unbent form.

"Also, Eros wasn't the god of love. Where Aphrodite was the goddess of love between a man and a woman, Eros was the god of love male love. Therefore, the poem is inadvertently an expression of passion between two men. I'm not sure that's the proper thing to be teaching in school. Unless, of course, it's your way of telling us something sensei?"

"Miss Amatsuka I….you…"

"I really don't think there's anything I can get from this class, today." She gathered up her things, walking up the line of desks towards the door. "Have a good afternoon, sensei."

Yuki watched in blank shock as she strolled pass the teacher. He didn't move, frozen to spot, eyes wide, his hand rigamortis clutch of the piece of chalk. His expression was frozen in a pose of awed horror and it seemed as if he no longer saw the class. He made no attempt to stop Kozue as she opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. He pushed to his feet without thinking and went after her. She'd gotten half way down the corridor when he called out her name. Her steps slowed and she paused for a moment before glancing back over her shoulder at him.

"Yes?"

"That's was pretty mean, don't you think. Embarrassing the teacher like that."

"It's not my fault. I only corrected his errors. If he hadn't made them then I wouldn't have said anything. He embarrassed himself, really."

"That's not fair."

She stared at him thoughtfully then. "You're Sohma Yuki, right?" He nodded. "They call you The Prince. Why?"

He flushed again in embarrassment. "It's just a nickname."

"Hmm. Let's go for a walk!"

"A walk? We still have classes."

"Well, alright then." And she turned away dismissively again, starting away down the hallway.

"You should apologize to the teacher."

She stopped but didn't turn back to him. Her hair rippled against her back, casting a tarnished wreath of light about her head. Like a crown. Or a dark angel's halo.

"I'd never apologize to a teacher. Particularly not one like him. What's right does he have to my respect when there's nothing I can learn from him? He's like all the rest. They think they're so smart, that they know so much wiser then everyone but they baulk away from being shown anything new. They hate it. They're like rats."

Yuki felt ice slip into his veins, race through his body and chill him throughout.

"Rats?"

"Vermin. Good for nothing. So I have no intention of apologizing. But it was cute of you to try and convince me to." She started walking again, the heels of her shoes clicking with deafening din against the floor, echoing through the empty hall way. "Goodbye. Sohma Yuki."

He watched her go and didn't stop her this time. She moved like a pixie. Like a queen. Regal, arrogant, assured. But she had fallen angel's eyes.

Rats. Vermin.

He should hate her for that. But he had fallen angel's eyes too.

* * *

Sohma Yuki. Prince Sohma Yuki. Prince Yuki. 

Lord of the school. Dominus of high school hearts. Proper family. Polite bearing. Perfect demeanor. Adored. Admired. Wanted. Loved.

She hated him. She wanted nothing more then to bring him low just for the petty crime of existing. For having a place when…when she didn't.

The moon said, I like this child.

I **like **this child.

I like…

The ringing was a low drone in her ear as she crossed the school yard at an easy stride. The vibration of the cell phone sent a dull throb through her wrist, up her arm. A block away from the school. The phone connected on the other end.

"Nakamora Laboratory; how can I help you?"

"Good afternoon. Would you please tell Amatsuka Chikako that her daughter's been in an accident?"

"Just a moment, please." The hold music the played reminded her of the carousels she'd seen at fairs and amusement parks. Cars rushed by her, rising in number as she turned onto the main streets. The phone line clicked again. "Miss Chikako is busy at the moment; however she requests that you leave an address and number where you can be reached."

Kozue ticked off the address of the hospital, she didn't know the number. She heard the scratch of the pin as her mother's secretary took down her dictation.

Then she disconnected and stepped out into traffic.


	3. Enigmatic Siren

**A/N - **Wha! I love reviews! They are my energizer batteries. I thought I'd take this time to place a disclaimer. I do not own Fruits Basket, Yuki, Kyo, Tohru, or any of the other characters depicted here except for the teachers. And Amatsuka Kozue! I apologize to all the Yuki lovers for her abusiveness. Gomen nasai! She's really very nice once you get to know her! ...sort of.  
**Kozue:** ::blows up the school's teacher lounge::  
ACK! Amatsuka! What did I say about constructing bombs out of house hold appliances!! Erm...anyway, back to the story...

* * *

**CHAPTER THREE**  
_Enigmatic Siren_

_'And you shall be loved by my lovers, courted by my courtiers. You shall be the queen of all men that have strange eyes, whose necks also I have clasped in my nocturnal caresses; of those who love the sea, the sea that is immense, tumultuous and green, the formless and multiform streams,_

_the place where they are not, the woman whom they do not know, sinister flowers that resemble the censers of a strange religion, perfumes that confound the will; and the savage and voluptuous animals which are the emblems of their dementia.'_

_And that, my dear, cursed, spoiled child, is why I am now lying at your feet, seeking in all your person the reflection of the formidable divinity, of the foreknowing godmother, the poisoning wet-nurse of all the lunatics._

**_&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&_**

"So what, some teacher got shown up by a third year girl. What's the big deal?"

"I don't know, but Takemora-sensei looked so upset. I felt so sad for him." Tohru said without looking at Kyo who lounged next to her on the roof. "I know that it's not wrong to correct someone's mistakes but…it was like she was attacking him at the same time."

"Eh." Kyo sighed, scratching at his crop of citrine hair. Secretly, he was always pleased when Tohru came to him with her problems, though he wasn't ready yet to confess to himself why. At the same time it always frustrated him because he was rarely any good at being able to help her. If she was being hurt or scared, that he could fix because all it required was strength. He had no idea how to fix emotional issues. "Well…I guess…there's really nothing you can do about some stuck up girl with a bad attitude. Besides, if she's really so smart then she'll probably be sent to a different school soon."

He grinned at the sky, pleased with his own solution. Maybe he wasn't so bad. He was getting better at this. He could just see it. Tohru would always come to him with everything saying 'Kyo you're so wise!' and Yuki couldn't ever call him stupid again. And-

"AH!"

Tohru's scream launched him to his feet immediately in a defensive maneuver. "What!? What is it!?"

"I forgot! Now I have to make Arisa-chan and Saki-chan's lunches for the next seven days."

Irritation twisted his face and made him tremble. "You weren't…even…listening." The words a low murmur.

"Huh? Did you say something Kyo?"

"You idiot! Don't scream like that when there's nothing! You almost scared me off the roof with your yelling! Are you crazy?"

A nervous smile blossomed on Tohru's features. "Heh, heh. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to."

"Don't apologize in such a flippant way! You just never listen do you?"

"I do, really." _Oh boy, here we go again._

Yuki listened to their conversation from the deck beneath them, leaning against the half repaired screen doors—Kyo had broken them once again. Some things would just never change. He returned to the house again as their words dissolved into a repetition of Kyo's usual admonishment and Tohru's attempt at temper soothing apology, which only had the opposite affect. He had to admit, part of him was jealous. There had been a time when he had once thought that he could be with Tohru but she was meant for Kyo, he'd seen that. Everyone had, in fact. Maybe that was another part of his curse, to always be left behind even when the person didn't mean to.

"There you are, Yuki. There's a telephone call for you." Shigure said as he entered his hand over the mouth piece of the receiver.

"A phone call?" Yuki extended his hand to accept the phone as their guardian nodded.

"It's your school's Head Teacher. I was just about to ask him to call back. Into trouble are you? Oooh. Yuki's in trouble. Yuki's in trouble."

He ignored Shigure's teasing and lifted the phone to his hear, summoning up as much patience as he could muster. "Hello, Head Teacher."

"Oh, Yuki. I apologize for disturbing you at home but I had another favor to ask. Well, really it's no more then an extension of the favor I requested earlier."

"Oh?"

"You see, Miss Amatsuka was in a traffic accident this morning." The words ripped through Yuki's careful nonchalance like a scythe. His body went ridged and his hand became limp around the phone. Yamaguchi-sensei went on, unaware of his reaction on the other line. "She's being discharged this evening but her mother is working late and can't pick her up. The entire mess puts the school in a bit of a bind since the accident happened while Amatsuka was supposed to be in classes. So I was hoping that you could walk her home, if it wouldn't be too much trouble."

Walk her? So she wasn't hurt that badly? "No, that's fine."

"Wonderful! I'm very grateful. Well she's at Niagata Hospital. Just tell the front desk who you are and they'll let you take her. Everything's been worked out already."

"Alright, then. Goodbye." He hung up and grabbed his coat from the wrack, shrugging his arms into it.

"Is everything alright?" Shigure asked, his teasing evaporated into real concern.

"I'm just going out for a bit. I'll be back."

"Ah, Yuki—"

He closed the door on Shigure's protest and started down the lane towards the city. Amatsuka was in a care accident. How much time passed between when he spoke to her and when it happened? What if she had died? The last thing she'd have ever heard was what he had said to her.

That made him nervous, for some reason.

* * *

"Gin!" 

"Wha! Yer cheatin!"

"That's just being sour. It's not my fault Gin is my game."

"Oh, she's got you there Kei." Said a voice like powdered sugar before giving a weak old laugh. "Well done deary."

"Well I say, deal again! I'll teach you women to abuse an old man."

The shuffling of cards followed the demand. "Best eleven out of thirteen then."

Yuki watched from the doorway where he'd yet to be noticed. Amatsuka's hair had been pulled back into a ponytail that draped over one shoulder. She wore her school uniform still though the sleeve was torn off one side and the upper part of her left arm was wrapped heavily in white bandage. Her long fingers moved with deft skill, shuffling a deck of playing cards and she sat across from an old couple—a dark haired woman smiling happily in a chair and a bald old man who lay in the hospital bed. She dealt the cards between them.

"Next time I'll be teachin ya how to play poker. We'll see how well you do then."

"Really, Kei!" the woman admonished. "I don't know how you got so competitive. I don't know why Kozue still visits."

"So I can have someone to win against, of course."

The woman laughed, a careful noise that turned her head and brought her eyes to the door way and consequentially Yuki. Surprise widened her eyes and then it seemed she took in his uniform. A glance was cast in Kozue's direction and then a speculative little smile lit her features. All in the span of a heart beat.

"I think you have a visitor, dear."

Amatsuka looked up from arranging her cards, and glanced back over her shoulder. She saw hope flicker and die in her eyes. It was so brief, the fall of a tear drop from a wide eye and just as sad. Yet it's fleeting made him wonder if he had seen it at all.

"What are you doing here?" she inquired without surprise.

"Oh, your boyfriend is it?" The old man prodded nosily.

"What a handsome boy. My hair's a mess! Come in, come in!"

Yuki flushed but he entered the room as he was bid. "I'm sorry for the interruption." He bent his head to the couple before looking at Kozue who had turned her face away from him completely. "The school asked me to come get you. Your mother—"

"I thought so." She stood tersely, handing her cards over to the old man. "I suppose we'll have our rematch next time."

"Don't think you'll win so easily!" The man, Kei, assured with a grin.

"Have fun, you two." The woman cheered.

"Keep an eye on her, young man." Kei narrowed his own at Yuki critically. "She owes me money and I don't want anything happening to her until then."

A small smile graced Kozue's features and she followed Yuki from the room. What kind of girl was she that she'd play card games with an old couple at the hospital but was so vicious towards a teacher at school? Her silence as they left the hospital was deafening, even her steps barely made noise and she walked a step behind him rather then beside.

"Can you walk fine?"

"Why?" She sounded amused. "Would you carry me if I couldn't?"

That would be disastrous. "Maybe we should take a taxi."

"I'm fine."

The silence stretched again, but it was tightly wound and uncomfortable. "What happened?"

"To me? Oh," She smiled dreamily at the dirty streets. "I tried to kill myself."

The roar of a bus as it drove past.


	4. Let's Die Together

**CHAPTER FOUR**  
_Let's Die Together_

_The Moon Child, more indolently dreams to-night than a fair woman on her couch at rest, caressing, with a hand distraught and light, before she sleeps, the contour of her breast. Upon her silken avalanche of down, dying she breathes a long and swooning sigh._

_She watches the white visions past her flown, which rise like blossoms to the azure sky. And when, at times, wrapped in her languor deep, earthward she lets a furtive tear-drop flow, some pious poet, enemy of sleep,_

_Takes in his hollow hand the tear of snow whence gleams of iris and of opal start, and hides it from the Sun, deep in his heart._

**_&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&_**

"Why would you want to kill yourself?"

She'd started humming some time ago, a low soft tune that would have been pretty but for the pauses she placed in it at inopportune places. Her fingers tangled in the ponytail that hung over her shoulder and her gaze studied the shadows that bunched on the edges of the sidewalk all around them.

It was things like this that made her feel like a wraith. Like a singing ghost that no one could touch. Why should she want to kill herself?

"Why not? Have you ever died Sohma Yuki? It must be a feeling like no other. The one thing that someone could teach me. Humans are just atoms and protein you know. And when we die that's what our body becomes again. The dirt and rock beneath our feet are made of millions and millions of human corpses, all turned to earth again. That's what'll happen to us, but…"

"But?"

"But I wonder what happens to out mind. Those patterns and waves that make us, us. I wonder if that's in the rock and dirt too."

She nearly bumped into him when he stopped walking. His back was ridged and he radiated anger in an almost tangible manner.

"So that's it? You'll play with death like an experiment. There are people who die everyday when they don't want to and you can be so flippant about living?"

How dare he? How dare he be able to make her so angry. To make her more resentful when she thought she was already as bitter as it was possible to get. What did he know? What could this perfect boy understand about anything? She hated his perfection, because it wasn't an illusion like hers. If she were to press against his goodness her hand wouldn't pass through it.

"Don't speak to me like an adult. Or do you want to try it to? How about it?" She smiled invitingly, impossibly pale eyes gleaming star fire against the backdrop of night. "Want to try to fix me, Sohma Yuki? Do you want to solve my problems and make me into a happy young girl? Want to try and show me how wonderful life is and why living is worth it? Then you can show the world how you reformed the wicked Miss Amatsuka. I'm sure that'll reflect well on your perfect reputation." She tugged at her ponytail thoughtfully. "I always got bored with previous attempts but maybe yours will be entertaining, for a while. So?"

He was chilled. The feeling raced through everything he was. Her words sounded uncaring and indifferent but there was so much behind him that he couldn't even guess at. A feeling that kept just a step ahead of his power to name. He frowned, a half lidded expression, and a shrug.

"If you're not interested in life I'm not going to try and show you."

"Poor sport." She stared at the truck that moved down the block, its headlights shining, silver length gleaming like a prince's blade. "Or maybe you can't. Maybe you just cling to life because you're afraid of dying."

"No."

"Let's do it then, together." She stepped forward softly, hands going out. "Let's try dying, together."

She just wanted to scare him really. She hadn't had any real intention of killing him or herself just then. All she wanted was to see that Adonis mask fall away for just a moment. She had angled herself based on his perceived weight and perhaps because he had never expected her to do such a thing, he didn't move in time. Her chest pressed against his back, her weight against his form and her arms moving to tangle about his waist like a restraint. And then he wasn't there, and she was grasping air as she fell, tumbling up short and only landing at the edge of the curb. The truck roared pass, deadly close but without brushing her. The wind wiped her hair around her face violently but she didn't even feel the lash of the tawny strands. Instead she was staring at the rodent that squirmed about in Sohma Yuki's clothing.

Yuki had felt his skin puff away into smoke the moment her form came about his. He hadn't ever imagined that Amatsuka would do such a thing. Of all the people he'd met, besides Kyo, she'd been the last he'd suspect of attempting to embrace him. It had been foolish to let his guard down and now he'd no doubt pay the price.

It was odd that he always fell from the same height when he changed. From the same level as where his heart was in his human form. He'd noticed it before and wondered if it was the case that the zodiac form came from the heart in some way. The descent was quick and he landed with his tail at an odd angle so that it sent a brief jolt of pain through his tiny form. He focused on the pain, for it gave him a moment to gather himself before he faced her.

He was waiting for a scream, for flight. Instead she sat on the ground, palms flat against the concrete. Eyes like miniature moons were widened in surprise and her body trembled—with fear or tears? He could tell.

"Impossible. This is impossible."

Perhaps staying was a bad idea. He scrambled over the hills of his clothing intending to escape but she must have recognized his intent for her hand came out and caught him. Her grasp was surprisingly gentle but firm enough that he couldn't wriggle free. The largess of her form and the closeness of his made it so that he couldn't see her face and read her expression as she brought him to her chest and deposited him in her breast pocket, buttoning it closed. He fought, scratched against cloth and attempt to slip through the space on either side of the bottom but it was to no avail.

She must have stood up, because he had the dizzying rush or rising, like the ascent of a Ferris wheel, rolling back into the corner of the pocket before the ride started to move, a forward, up and down motion that made him feel sick. Where was she taking him? The light that he could see through the space in the seams shifted, dimming slowly till the streetlamps orange glow was no longer visible and only the champagne luminescence of the moon illuminated the shadows.

The roller coaster ended and he felt himself descend again, and then the flip of the pocket was raised and a white hand lifted him out of the darkness and onto the cold concrete of a step. They were away from the main roads, in an apartment complex. Kozue knelt at the foot of a flight of stairs, her hand capturing his tail lightly when he attempted to escape into the bushes about the house.

"You are Sohma Yuki, aren't you? Can you understand me?"

_This wasn't good._

The thought drifted through him mind an instant before his fur puffed away as his skin had. The word shrank as he regained his proper form and the night wind chilled human flesh, raising goosebumps over his arm and abdomen.

_Why me._

The cold reminded him he was naked and not alone and he flushed bright crimson, glancing at Kozue. She was turned away, one arm extending his clothes and her back trembling the way it had on the streets however far back from where they'd been.

"You don't have to be afraid." He took his uniform from her hair with polite speed.

"Afraid?" Her voice was cracked and it split into peals of laughter like the ringing of bells, one hand clasped over her mouth to stifle the sound. "Oh, you were a mouse!"

Yuki's head snapped up from fixing his tie in shock and he stared at her. The sound had mirth in it, no doubt, but there was also a venomous undertone that made him nervous.

"Your reaction is not usual."

"Maybe." She rose unsteadily to her feet, trying with some victory to control her hilarity. "But so are you. So Prince Yuki becomes a mouse when…you're afraid? Angry?"

"When I'm embraced by a female." He answered without thinking. She'd knocked him off guard again.

"Ah." Amusement lit her eyes. "Like a reversal of the Frog Prince. How funny!" She clapped her hands together. "Why?"

He said nothing. After all he'd already given away too much. He'd almost given away everything. There was no reason to tell her about the Zodiac and the entire Sohma family.

"Won't tell? That's alright. If doesn't matter anyway." She lifted her hands to her hair and removed the ribbon that confined it so that the copper waves slipped free to tumble around her face and shoulders in rampancy. "The real matter is, how are you going to keep me from telling everyone."

Yuki gave her a dark look. He had harbored a thought that she would turn to such a thing but it hadn't been a solid belief until then. "Have you always been cruel?"

"From the moment I was born. Have you always been a rat?"

"Yes."

"I suppose we're both just products of our genetics then."

"This isn't something you can do. Your memory will be erased and even I won't have a say in that."

She smiled, unaffected. "I supposed there was something like that." She laughed at his surprised expression. "You know I'm clever. What are the chances that there's never been an incident like this one in your life? There had to have been some means of preventing it from getting out. It was either murder or more impossible things. But I can get around both."

"What do you mean?"

"How many people do you think I can tell before you manage to erase my memory? You would have done it by now if it was as simple as that. In the next hour I could find a dozen ways to tell the entire city about you. I wonder, could you erase the memories of that many people? Could you wipe the minds of all of Japan? My mother is the head of an innovative laboratory that's constantly making discoveries. All I have to do is make a false announcement about a new find and I could have the media at my fingertips in the blink of an eye. I could make a recording of myself before you erase my memory and hide it somewhere I'd trip over it later to remind myself again and again what you are and what was done to me. Are you sure you could find the tape before I did? I promise I wouldn't be so nice afterwards."

He had gone deadly still. It was true, other had found out but in their confusion and disbelief it had been simple thing to erase what they knew in a blink, even when Yuki had fought against it. But this girl; she was calm and analytical and that made her more powerful then anyone who had found out before. And he had more to loose then just his own secret. For now she knew nothing about the rest of his family.

There was the chance that he could keep it that way.

"What do you want?"

Her smile was the tilt of a crescent moon.


	5. Magic Genie

**CHAPTER FIVE  
**_Magic Genie_

_Folly and error, sin and avarice work on our bodies, occupy our thoughts, and we ourselves sustain our sweet regrets as mendicants nourish their worms and lice. Our wrongs are stubborn, our repentance base; we lavishly pay for confessions, and to the muddy path gaily return._

_Our ravished senses at his leisure lulls, and all the precious metal of our wills is vaporized by this arch-scientist. The Devil holds our strings in puppetry. In objects vile we find attraction; each day we sink nearer perdition, unhorrified, through rank obscurity. As some poor libertine will bite and kiss the bruised breast of a courtesan, we catch a passing pleasure clandestine, like an old orange squeeze out all its' juice._

_And like a million helminths swarming, dense, a world of Demons tipple in our brains, and, when we breathe, Death in our lungs remains, river invisible, with dull complaints._

**&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&**

"A what?"

"Ma-gic ge-nie. Like the kind that come out of magic lamps when you rub them and grant wishes." Kozue smiled at him as she traced the curve of a bottle in the air with her fingers. "From now on you have to be my personal magic genie and do whatever I say. As long as you do then I won't tell."

Yuki leaned against the phone pole wearily. "How do I know you won't?"

"It's common sense really. As long as I'm getting what I want, why should I? If I tell then I loose my genie. Besides if you don't then you know for sure I will, so it'd be a loose-loose situation even if I were being dishonest."

"Do you think this isn't dishonest?"

She frowned at him critically, her eyes registering real insult. "Of course not. I've never lied once, have I? I never pretended to have a good personality and I didn't trick you in any sort of way. And you should be the last one to talk about dishonesty when you're keeping such a secret."

That remark struck home and he turned away from her, annoyed at the shame that rushed through him. But she was right, wasn't she? If anyone was deceitful, it was him after all. The things about who he was…it caused trouble. Just like now.

"It's not your fault, though." He glanced at her from sheer surprise. She'd sat down on the middle step, leaning back on her elbows. "We really can't help the way we're born. What we look like, who we share blood with, what we can do—it's not something that we have the power to choose. And sometimes we're given things that many other people around us can't handle. I suppose, in a way, hiding those traits is the same as wearing clothes to cover your naked body. There's nothing wrong with it and it's not something horrible but…it's also not something that everyone would accept seeing so openly. But, it's also something that you can keep special too, for someone special."

He stared at her, as understanding teased the limits of his perception. "Amatsuka…"

She flashed him a razor blade smile. "Don't get me wrong though. I've seen your naked body and your rat form and I'm definitely not the special person."

He exhaled his disillusion. "You really do have a bad personality."

"What a mean thing to say, magic genie!" She wagged a finger at him. "You should be nicer or Amatsuka won't be nice either. So then, we have a deal?"

"I don't have a choice."

"Yay!" She clapped her hands together in exaggerated delight. "And you have to say 'abracadabra' after I make a wish!"

"What!?"

"Do it! Do it!"

Yuki turned away, letting a moment of sullen silence stretch out between them. "Abra…cadabra."

Kozue smirked, lowering her lashes briefly over pewter eyes and then rose to her feet. Her hair streamed over her shoulder and banner like caramel and her skin was made all the paler under the moonlight. She looked made of moonlight herself, at once pale and dark like a cursed goddess.

"Right then. I'm going home now."

"You mean this isn't your house." He glanced up at the apartment she'd chosen as their base of negotiations.

"Here? Of course not." She looked amused again. "Do you think I would show you where my house was so that you could come back and erase my memories. It'll take you at least until tomorrow to figure out my address so I don't have to worry about anything for tonight at least."

Yuki felt the prick of a grudging admiration. "You really are too clever."

She laughed, lifting a hand in a wave. "Ja ne. I'll see you tomorrow, magic genie."

* * *

"Oh, Yuki! You're back."

Tohru looked up from vacuuming as he slid open the doors and stepped into the house, greeting him with her usual warm smile. Kyo, sprawled on the floor near the table didn't even turn his head and Shigure turned a page in the newspaper he was reading.

"Yuki. You shouldn't leave so suddenly like that." His glasses glinted in the lamplight as he looked up. "Did you finish your business for the Head Teacher?"

"Yes. I'm going up to my room now."

"Oh, um…" Tohru glanced in the direction of the kitchen. "Don't you want dinner?"

He managed the motions of a rueful little smile. "I'm sorry Tohru but I'm not really hungry. I'm just going to bed."

"Are you feeling alright? Should I make you some tea? Or soup?"

"There's no need for you to worry. I'm just tired from the errands I had to run for Yamaguchi-sensei."

"Oh, I understand! Well, sleep well then!"

He nodded. "Arigatou. Good night."

* * *

It was like a haunted house. Darkness filled the room as if the night spilled in through the windows and smothered any illumination. The portraits on the wall had a shadowy cast and angled forms of the busts and statues created ominous silhouettes against the wall. Like a haunted house.

Kozue slammed the door behind her when she entered and the noise echoed through the corridors then fell away into silence. She let her jacket fall to the floor, a foot away from the rack and slipped her feet from her shoes to move barefoot across the hall. The room in the back was cracked and the bluish glow of a computer screen illuminated the carpet in eerie invitation. She pressed her face to the space between the door and the jam. Her mother was bent over a keyboard, her short, chocolate brown hair held back with clips. She wore her black suit, immaculate as always, and her face was a mask of focused attention on the screen in front of her.

"I'm home." No response. She opened the door a bit wider, just enough so that, if she wanted, she could slip inside. "Mother?"

"Who? Oh! Not now Kozue. I'll take you out later."

"I was just letting you know I was home."

"Hmm? Alright. You'll have to make your own dinner tonight."

She stared at the back of her mother's head. "I see…" And shut the door.

The clicking of computer keys permeated the flimsy barrier of the door and Kozue leaned against it, sinking down until her knees brushed the soft fabric of the carpet. Her head tilted and her eyes went to the cherub motif of the tiled ceiling. She lifted her hand, spreading her fingers so that one dark haired angle looked caught between them.

"Abracadabra. Poof; it all disappears."

* * *

"Are you alright, Yuki?"

Tohru glanced across at the boy on her left side, her eyes dark with concern. His silence all morning had been disconcerting. She knew that Yuki wasn't a morning person, she'd seen it a million times but he was usually more awake and animated by the time they got to school.

"I'm fine." He tried a smile a reassure her as they entered the school yard. "I just have a lot to worry about."

"Oh, I forgot. You're the student council president, so you must have so much more work to take care of then before.

"If you ask me, judging from the president last year he shouldn't be having so big of a problem." Kyo intoned with his usual disconcertion when the topic under discussion was Yuki. Or anything that had to do with Yuki, for that matter. Tohru hurried to diffuse the situation before it even began.

"Let's not start anything today, Kyo. Yuki has a lot of responsibilities to think about."

"Yeah, well. I have things to worry about too, you know!"

Tohru gave him a surprised look, tilting her head with genuine curiosity. "Really? Like what?"

Kyo fumbled. "Like…ah…I…just stuff, okay!"

"I…see."

"Yuki-san!" The voice that cut across the yard made the trio look up. Two pairs of eyes flickered in surprise and one in apprehension.

Amatsuka Kozue looked to bear no ill-effects of her brush with death. Her hair hung in waves around her slender form and her lips were curved into a warm smile that was completely unlike the icy quirk she had shown during her introduction the previous day. She moved with graceful confidence across the yard in a way that made her seem somehow even prettier and a number of students turned to watch her as she passed. But her eyes, they gleamed as the lining of storm clouds before a storm, the shade of a maelstrom ocean before the sea monster rose from it.

"Ohayo!" She directed her grin in Yuki's direction and he stared back at her, unsure of how to act. She noted his silence and lifted an eyebrow. "Wha? I don't even get a good morning?"

"Ah. Gomen. Ohayo."

She flashed a smirk that only he caught before she turned her attention towards Tohru and Kyo. Her demeanor was warm and all sunshine, she hardly looked like the girl that had mortified their teacher or blackmailed him the day before.

"You must be Yuki's friends. I'm Amatsuka Kozue. Pleased to meet you." She bent her head with the greeting.

Tohru's eyes widened and she flushed quickly. "Me, as well!" She gave an answer bow. "I'm Honda Tohru."

"Sohma Kyo. And I'm no friend of his."

Tohru sighed in Kyo's direction before she looked to Kozue again. "You're the new student that Yamaguchi-sensei asked Yuki to show around."

"Yes. I was really nervous my first day, but Yuki really helped me. Now we've become such good friends!"

"Oh! Really? That's wonderful!" Tohru's smile multiplied in wattage and Yuki resisted the urge to press his palm to his forehead, instead he settled for looking away from the scene. How could Kozue lay it on so thick? "Kozue, let's be friends too, okay?"

"Oh, really? I was really worried you wouldn't like me."

Yuki's head snapped back around.

"What? Why?"

"Well. Some of the rumors I heard said that you were Yuki-san's girlfriend."

Three uncomfortable expressions blossomed in perfect unison.

"No, no, you've got it all wrong. We're just friends." Tohru protested while Kyo simultaneously defended with a stuttered. "What kind of rumor is that!? It's ridiculous."

"Oh, I see." Kozue grinned, clasping her hands together apologetically. "So then the other rumor must be true. You're Sohma Kyo's girlfriend."

"WHA!?"

"Silly me."

"No, no. That's not it either!"

The ring of the bell echoed across the thinning school yard and Kozue turned, deaf to the duo protests.

"We'd better get to class. Oh, I know." She glanced back over her shoulder. "Let's all go out for karaoke after school. The four of us. How about it, Tohru-chan?"

"Yes! That sounds like fun!"

"I'm not going." Kyo said flatly.

Kozue stuck out her lower lip in exaggerated disappointment. "No? But I really wanted all of us to go." She slanted her gaze in Yuki's direction and he felt a chill slide down his spine. "Yu-kinie."

"Yukinie?" Kyo questioned in evident confusion, which slipped into irritation when Yuki reached out to grasp his collar and pull him back. "What? What are you doing?"

Violet hair obscured his eyes and he moved like a marionette on stiff strings, slamming Kyo to the ground with a flick of his arm. Dirt flew up around him and that aura of violence started to radiate from Kyo's exhumed form.

"What was that for!?"

"You're going."

"Like hell, I am! If you want a fight you've got one but there's no way in hell I'm going to some karaoke place."

The face of Kozue's cell phone flashed as her fingers moved over the keypad. "I wonder if the news paper is interested in an exclusive story."

Yuki clenched his hand into a fist…and proceeded to thrash the cat.


	6. He's My Best Friend

**A/N- **Kozue is sorta scary. My own creations frighten me sometimes.  
**Kozue:** I frighten you, dear creator!? Gomen nasai! I...I didn't mean to.  
**Morgan**::gasp:: Kozue! Forgive me. I didn't mean it.  
**Kozue**: Dear creator. Forgive me. I only want to please you. But perhaps you hate me now. ::turns away::  
**Morgan**::bursts in to tears and hugs her:: Never, never!  
**Kozue**::compresses the pressure points on the author's neck to immobilize her:: Creation am I?  
**Morgan**: Wha! AMATSUKA!!  
**Kozue**: Disclaimer time, once again. The song used here does not belong to the writer, it is by Toybox. Now on to the fic.

**

* * *

****CHAPTER SIX  
**_He's My Bestfriend  
_  
_If rape and dagger, fire and hellebore, have not yet prinked out with designs ornate the common canvas of our wretched fate, it is, alas, that our faint soul demurs._

_And yet among the jackals, panthers, dogs, the monkeys, serpents, vultures, rats, the beasts which howl and growl and crawl and scream and in our heinous zoo of sins abound. There's one more hideous, evil, obscene! Though it makes no gesture, no great cry, it would lay waste the earth quite willingly, and in a yawn, engulf creation._

_Boredom! Its eyes with tears unwilling shine. It dreams of scaffolds, smoking its cheroot._

**&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&**

"_He's my best friend! Best of all, best friends. Do you have a best friend too?_" Kozue pumped a hand into the air as she sang, a charm bracelet on her lefts wrist flashing in the lights of the small karaoke room as she danced. Her hair flared around her with each little spin she did with the music, injecting all the energy that the upbeat song deserved into her movements. Yuki lacked less energy, however, distinctly uncomfortable standing next to her lively antics staring at the screen where the song's lyrics flashed in bold blue letters. "_It tickles in my tummy. He's so yummy, yummy. Hey, you should get a best friend too._"

"This is ridiculous. I don't want to be here." Kyo grumbled from his spot on the floor at the edge of the small platform that served as the karaoke stage.

"_Hello baby can I see a smile._" Kozue sang in a voice forced into ridiculously high pitch.

"_I'm going to a party and it's gonna be wild_." Yuki lack-lusterly recited the words.

"_Can I come, I am sitting alone."_

"_Things are never alone."_

"Oh the other hand, it's also very entertaining." Kyo affirmed, enjoying Yuki's discomfort and was rewarded with a look like a December midnight from the dark haired boy.

"I think its fun." Tohru argued, smiling in an effort to raise Kyo's spirits. The combination of Yuki's strange mood and Tohru's enthusiasm had effectively roped him into the event, but he was far from happy about it.

"Well, you and Amatsuka make two then."

"I don't know." Tohru smiled a bit to herself glancing back at the stage were Kozue and Yuki had progressed steadily into the second verse of the song. The tawny haired girl moved with animated, ballet like moves around him and sang with such emphasized liveliness that is was at once entertaining and humorous. Yuki, meanwhile, at some point had started to make an effort and while he couldn't inject that same errant energy the glimmer of a distracted, absent smile had started. It was slight and hard to see but Tohru had learned how to spot it. "I think Yuki's having fun too."

"What are you talking about? He's miserable."

"Do you think so?" She just smiled brighter, which only made Kyo's confused expression increase. 'Yuki said how he wanted friends. I think that, doing things like this, things that regular students do, I think that he likes that. He and Miss Amatsuka must have become such good friends. I'm so happy.'

"What are you grinning about?" Kyo questioned irritable.

"This means I don't have to make Arisa-chan and Ha-chan's lunches!"

"…wha?"

"_Maybe, some pretty girls are in your world. Excuse me, but I could also be your girl. Lately, everyone is making fun._ _He's my best friend. Best of all, best friends! Do you have a best friend too? _Tohru!"

Kozue reached out and dragged a surprised Tohru onto stage, giving her the microphone and jumped down, leaving her on stage with Yuki.

"Oh, not going to sing, Sohma Kyo?"

Kyo cut her a suspicious look from the corner of his eyes. "You look cute…but you're full of evil aren't you?"

She nodded. "Uh-huh."

* * *

"I had a lot of fun. We should do it again, real soon." 

"Are you going home now?"

Tohru nodded at Kozue. "Yes. I have to go grocery shopping so I want to get it done before it gets dark."

"Um…" Kyo started, making Tohru's eyes swing towards him. "I'll help you carry them."

She stared in surprise for a moment the rewarded him with a smile. "Thank you! Kyo-kun."

Kozue maintained a small wave as the pair walked off down the side walk, waiting till they were out of ear shot before she glanced at Yuki. The summer smile she'd maintained in Tohru and Kyo's presence turned wicked, that bladed grin again.

"So. Are you in love with Tohru-chan?"

"No."

His answer was so point and frank that it surprised her momentarily. His face had become speculative and he watched the corner the two had disappeared around. She didn't think he was lying, but she also thought the truth was newly found. Curiosity made a brief cameo in her thoughts and then she shoved it away violently. She didn't want to get involved in Sohma Yuki's problem. She just wanted him to grant her wishes for a while. And nothing more.

"Alright then, magic genie! It's time for my next wish."

Yuki sighed. "Alright. What is it?"

"I'm hungry." She turned and walked pass him. "And I want sushi. So say the magic words and take me to a restaurant, magic genie!"

He slipped his hands into his pockets without protest. "Abracadabra."

"Oh. You're getting better!" She fell into step next to him.

"What did you think of Mr. Nakamora not being in school?"

"Mr. Nakamora? Oh, you meant that teacher. I really would have been surprised if he was. After the little incident. That's what usually happens."

He looked up at her in surprise. "Usually?"

Her lashes lowered in venomous amusement. "Did you think that that was the first time I've done that to a teacher? There are dozens more just like him." She shrugged carelessly. "Because of my IQ, school is only a formality. But there are teachers who don't accept that and so it becomes necessary for me to give them a demonstration. Although I can't say I don't enjoy it."

"Do you hate teachers, so much then."

She glanced at him sideways and her pale eyes glowed, flickered and shifted like white shadows. Her lips parted in a weary sort of sigh and she looked away again, fixing her eye straight ahead of her. "You give them too much credit, to be worth singularly worth so much of my emotions."

"What do you mean?"

"I hate teachers, I hate doctors, I hate police, and lawyers and scientists. I hate students and models and singers and actors. The whole world could disappear, just evaporate and…I wouldn't shed a tear." There was something in the smile she gave him. "That's the problem when you know too much. You get so jaded that, you just stop caring. So if the world stops spinning or if it goes on, I wouldn't care either way. Like I said, people are just protein and atoms. I don't consider them to be anything more."

"What made you like this?"

"I told you. When you know too much, everything becomes tiresome. Why, do you know something that I don't? I'll make you a deal. If you can teach me something worthwhile that I don't already know about then I'll be **your **magic genie. I'll keep your secret and do what ever you say. I'll even be nice to the teachers. Well? Sohma Yuki."

He was silent for a long while and Kozue smirked into the quiet, stringing slender fingers through her lions mane of hair.

"There are some things that can't be taught."

She turned her head in surprise. "What?"

"Everything you know…it comes from a book doesn't it? So what are the things that make you different from the books that you learned from?"

She stared at him and then finally her lips curled in a bitter smile. "Now you understand. There isn't anything. Anything at all."

He started, and met her dark gaze with quizzical speculation. "Amatsuka…"

"I've changed my mind!" Her voice was sharp. "We're going there." She lifted her arm and pointed across the streets towards a building whose lights had just come on as the sky started to welcome the darkness of dusk.

"But…that's a host bar."

She grinned. "I know."

He didn't understand her. Every time he thought he had a piece of her personality set it changed and he was left empty handed again. Was that how she really felt? Or was she wearing a mask? Or was it only part of the truth. He didn't know. He couldn't even begin to guess. But the worst thing of it all was that he wanted to know. He wanted to know why someone else could have eyes that seemed even more lonely then his own. He wanted to why she could seem so cold and hateful but so full of animation at the same time. It was an enigma that made him restless.

"Ah!" It was reflex only that kept him from walking into her when she stopped abruptly outside of the host bar and he stared at the back of her neck. "I thought you wanted to go in here."

"Not exactly." She turned, one hand closing the flap of her school back and the other around the neck of a half empty bottle with a rag stuffed into it.

"What is that?"

She didn't answer him; instead she pulled a lighter from her pocket and touched the flame to the end. "Bombs away!" Her shout an airy laugh as she tossed the bottle at the black Mercedes that had just pulled up in front of the bar.

The bottle struck the windshield of the car, splintering it in a chorus of cracking glass. It rolled, catching in the windshield wipers and shining innocently for a moment and then…exploded.

Yuki stared in horror Kozue smiling enigmatically at his side.

The car was motionless for a moment, aside from the bramble of the hood. Two motorcycles pulled up behind it and the riders dismounted. And then the doors opened and six black suited men emerged from either side, their hair slicked back and their faces dimpled by the results of some old knife fights. One wore a westerner fedora and held a cigar, unlit.

"Yakuza."


	7. Strange Trouble

_**CHAPTER SEVEN  
**Strange Trouble_

_She is lovely, and more than lovely: she is astonishing. Darkness abounds in her, and she is inspired by everything deep and nocturnal. Her eyes are two caverns in which mystery vaguely flickers, and a sudden glance from her illuminates like a flash of lightning -- an explosion in the dark of night._

_I would compare her to a black sun, if only one could conceive of such a star pouring forth light and shadow. But it is the moon, rather, to which she is more readily likened; it is the moon that has marked her indelibly with its redoubtable influence; not the stark white moon of romantic idylls, that icy bride, but the sinister, inebriating moon suspended in the depths of a stormy night and brushed by racing clouds; not the peaceful, discreet moon visiting the sleep of guiltless men, but the moon ripped from the heavens, defeated and rebellious, that the Thessalian witches cruelly compelled to dance on the terrified grass. In her little skull dwell a tenacious will and a love of prey. And yet she makes one dream of the miracle of a superb flower blossoming in a volcanic soil._

_There are women who fill men with a desire to conquer them and have their way with them; but this woman inspires a longing to die slowly under her gaze. _

**_&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&_**

"What are you doing?" Yuki demanded of her, as the men emerged from the car. As the yakuza emerged.

She offered up that siren's smile. "Oops."

"What the hell do you brats think you're doing?" One of the yakuza demanded in evident irritation. His face was contorted into fury and the backdrop of flame gave him a multifold menace.

Regardless, he had nothing on Kozue. She recognized it in him; unfulfilled arrogance. He felt like a big shot, thought he deserved to call the shots, but he was stuck as an underling. The others radiated similar forms of frustrated irritation and they put all their resentment into the times when they could freely be violent. He was angry about the car, about the insult of the action, but he was also piling all those other irritants onto his fury.

But in the end he was nothing more then a puppet to whatever fool was head of the yakuza clan he belonged to. And that made Kozue laugh.

"Is she laughing at us?"

"You little bitch, do you know who we are?"

She laughed; her whole body shook with the sounds of mirth. Her head thrown back, her hair rippling, her mouth parted in and her lashes black against the paleness of her skin. She looked like something preternaturally beautiful. With a freedom that seemed like strength and power. But wasn't.

"I didn't know it would explode like that. That was fun!" She smiled and stepped forwards. Her eyes half lidded in a sultry expression, one arm sashed across her stomach and the over bend over her chest so that she could bury her fingers in her hair. "You're yakuza aren't you? Normally I would apologize with my body." Her lips curved. "But now that I've got a tough boyfriend, I don't have to."

"Amatsuka!" Yuki looked at her, taken aback. "What are you doing?"

"Tough is he? He looks like a brat to me."

Kozue turned her back on them, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Go easy on them Yuki. They're just yakuza trash."

"Who's trash!" One of the two who'd ridden the motorcycles pulled a pair of nine-sectional chains from his belt. "Little punk."

Kozue stepped back out of the way as he charged. Yuki dodged the sweep of the chains narrowly, feeling the coldness of the metal as it swung pass his chuck. A dug avoided another swipe and a kick to the stomach made the man stumble backwards unsteadily.

"What the hell?"  
"So the kid knows some stuff. Let's teach him more."

A ripple of violence went through the group and Yuki took a step back. Eight of them. Could he take down all eight? There was a possibility but he couldn't be sure. And he couldn't fight and keep an eye on Kozue at the same time. He glanced around but the streets were empty. People had recognized the yakuza and had made themselves scarce, unwilling to get involved and possibly be the target of the clan's displeasure. His eye caught on one of the motorcycles.

"You're gonna regret this ya little punk!" Yuki dodged the swipe of a brass knuckled fist, moving to the side and grabbing Kozue's wrist.

"Let's go!"

"Hey!"

He kept her as close to him as he dared, lashing out with an elbow to neatly break the nose of one of the men in his way before swinging a leg over the motorcycle. He felt Amatsuka's hand fist the back of his coat before he tore the bike away from the curb. The bike tilted unpleasantly and he had to work to keep it balanced. Riding a motorcycle wasn't as easy as it had appeared.

"What were you thinking, Amatsuka!?"

"What? You're not having fun?" She laughed, tossing her head back, unaffected by his unsteady control of the bike. "Oops. Company!"

Yuki glanced in the mirror. Two riders on the other motorcycle behind them, the passenger wielding a knife that gleamed with ill intent. Kozue laughed again, sticking her tongue out at them; devil's advocate. He sped up as quickly as he dared, taking a corner sharply. The bike leaned, Kozue threw her hands up as he straightened, her hair whipping wildly about his face.

"You didn't tell me you could ride a motorcycle."

"I can't." He admitted distractedly, eyes on the tiny review mirror.

"You're a natural." She curled fingers around her copper locks, forcing them behind her shoulder. "Oh! Turn here!" She tightened her hold on his shirt, tugging him towards the right.

Yuki swerved the bike, cutting across a line of cars that blared their horns at him in protest as the ford in the lead narrowly missed the back wheel. The two yakuza were forced to brake or risk plowing into the hood of the car and he watched them become a pin prick in the mirror.

"That was dangerous." He rebuked once their persuers had vanished from sight.

"So? Everything is dangerous, Yukinie. This right, here."

She pointed and he followed the direction of her finger. The city fell away, the towering heights of corporate buildings giving way the modest dwellings of small houses with white balconies dim lit curtained windows. The road narrowed, no longer allowed to be wide due the railing that separated it from sea line of the coast. The water glittered underneath the setting sun which pained parts of the ocean's surface in an orange glow. The cold evening found the beach unpopulated except for the gulls that swooped low over rising tide in search of a meal that washed up from the marine depths.

"I use to come here a few years ago." Kozue smiled at the scenery.

Yukie was surprised, more at the fact that she had told him then at the confession itself. "With who?"

She made a sound of dismissal. "No one of consequence. Stop here."

He pulled the bike over at her direction and followed her down to the beach. Amatsuka had slipped off her shoes to move barefoot across the sand, her approach sending a flock of seagulls towards the air in a flurry of snowy feathers. With her hair unbound and her face turned rapturously towards the sea she didn't appear nearly like the threat she had proven herself to be.

Memories were fine with her. Recalling pain and loss was the same to her as coffee was to people when they woke up in the morning. Motivator; potent substance to encourage drive. Footprints criss-crossed over the terrain into the distance and a child's shovel had been left half buried in the sand. She walked over and dug it up, silky gold grains sliding over her fingers and back to their source.

"Sohma Yuki."

"Yes?" He was at her shoulder.

"Did you ever build sandcastles when you were little?"

He was silent for a moment and then finally admitted. "No."

Kozue smiled, because it was the answer she'd been expecting. She couldn't imagine such a refined person, even as a child, to much around in the sand with other screaming children.

"Neither did I."

"What did you do when you came here?" His tone was quizzical; he didn't bother to hide his curiosity.

"Watched boys, told secrets, silly things."

"Why'd you stop?"

_You're a freak. No one really likes you.  
It's your fault everyone failed!  
Just disappear already._

The voices were a scream in her air which she silenced by shutting the door on everything that the shoreline had called to the forfront of her conciousness. She had to shut the look the beach itself away to do it and the entire landscape lost it's luster then. The sea stopped shining, the sand was no longer crushed diamond, and the sun was just a distant ball of flame and gasses. Nothing more.

"I grew up."

"I always think I would have liked to play on the beach like other kids. I use to watch them when they made castles or buried each other or went swimming. I envied them. Because they could play like that without concern when I couldn't."

"Because one wrong step, and poof." She turned back to look at him.

"Yes."

He watched the sea the way she had before. With murky eyes that painted all things in nostalgic splendor. Painfully lovely.

Kozue moved behind him, looping arms around his waist before he acknowledged her intent. She felt the warmth of cloth and skin under her arm for a brief moment and then it was gone. The change was less shocking the second time. A human boy and then smoke, like a magician's cheap trick, and a tiny gray mouse took his place among discarded clothing and empty shoes. She crouched down so that she was nearer to him.

"Are you always so off guard?" She didn't know why she bothered speaking. She'd never asked if he could understand her when he changed.

She reached out, closing her hands around his small body, soft fur warming her palms and his whiskers tickling her fingers tips. She carried him over to where the shovel had been partly submerged and laid him in the small indentation made in the sand and started to sweep the grains back over him. He let out a squeak of protest, attempting to escape however she pushed him back gently with a fingertip she he teetered back into the little ditch again.

"Just stay still." She demanded, injecting as much impatience as she could into her voice. Maybe he couldn't understand her words but even animals could comprehend tone.

She piled the disturbed sand over his diminuitive form until all but his gray head was buried, a little mouse shaped mound against the vastness of the beach. The last rays of the sun made beady black eyes gleam, watching her with human stoicism as she sat back on her heels.

"I'd try to shape a mermaid around you like in movies, but sculpting isn't my greatest talent." She traced hair around the shape of his small head with her fingernail. "This probably isn't the same, but burying you in your normal form would take to long, and ruin your uniform. I--"

The little mound trembled, quaking like a frightened child and then in an explosion of sand that flew in all direction, tangling in her hair, the rodent was gone. Sohma Yuki sat up with the ethereal grace of Venus rising from the ocean waves. Kozue sighed and turned away in jealousy and modesty, tossing his clothing over her shoulder.

"What were you saying?" He asked behind her amid the rustle of fabric.

"I think, I like you better as a rat." She stood up, brushing sand from her skirt. "Let's got back to the city. I have ballet practice."


	8. Never Once Seen Her

**CHAPTER EIGHT  
**_Never Once Seen Her_

_When debauchees are roused by the white, rosy dawn, escorted by the Ideal which gnaws at their hearts. Through the action of a mysterious, vengeful law, in the somnolent brute an Angel awakens. The inaccessible blue of Spiritual Heavens, for the man thrown to earth who suffers and still dreams, opens and yawns with the lure of the abyss. Thus, dear Goddess, Being, lucid and pure, over the smoking ruins of stupid orgies, your memory, clearer, more rosy, more charming, hovers incessantly before my widened eyes. The sunlight has darkened the flame of the candles; Thus, ever triumphant, resplendent soul! Your phantom is like the immortal sun!_

_The season is at hand when swaying on its stem every flower exhales perfume like a censer; sounds and perfumes turn in the evening air; melancholy waltz and languid vertigo! Every flower exhales perfume like a censer; the violin quivers like a tormented heart; melancholy waltz and languid vertigo! The sky is sad and beautiful like an immense altar._

_The violin quivers like a tormented heart, a tender heart, that hates the vast, black void! The sky is sad and beautiful like an immense altar; the sun has drowned in his blood which congeals...A tender heart that hates the vast, black void gathers up every shred of the luminous past! The sun has drowned in his blood which congeals...your memory in me glitters like a monstrance!_

**_&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&_**

Yuki left her infront of a ballet studio downtown, the wind having whipped the sand from her hair and uniform till she looked as ordered as usual. She cast him a speculative look and then her usual wicked smile as she dismounted from the bike and disappeared into the building beneath a pair of flashing ballet shoes. Driving around on a stolen motorcycle, particularly a yakuza one made him nervous and uncomfortable and not only because it was merely luck and instinct that kept the thing upright. But he wanted to make a last stop before he abandoned it somewhere to be found and returned home.

An hour past six and the lobby of Niagata Hospital was all but empty but for the receptionist who shuffled papers that glowed luminescently beneath the florescent lights. She offered him a smile as he approached.

"Hello, again. Are you back to see Miss Amatasuka?"

He returned her polite expression. "No, thank you. I was hoping you could give me the room number for someone else."

"Of course. Their name?"

With a start Yukie realized that he didn't know. Distantly annoyed by his lapse he frowned. "A married couple. Elderly. The man's name is Kei."

The receptionist's eyebrow shot up instantly and her chipper welcome died like an old light bulb, flickering her fingers over the short bangs that shifted against her forehead. "You're visiting someone who's name you don't know? What relation are you to them?"

Lying was pointless and transparent so he simply shook his head. Her frown deepened.

"I'm afraid I can't give out--"

"It's already Sakaki." The voice was that powdered sugar tone from before and wrinkles carved a gently amused expression in the features of the dark haired woman that walked with bent grace towards him. She placed a wrinkled hand on his sholder as if he were a favorite grandchild and she beamed towards the receptionist. "This is Mr. Tsubasa's great-nephew-in-law. Or was it second. Oh, old minds can never remember these things. Why don't you come with me, dear?"

The last she addressed towards Yuki, her fingers tightening on his shoulder as she steered him away from the front desk and across the lobby at a hobbled pace. She smiled with fathomless cheer, inclining her head towards the patients the drifted through the ground floor.

"What did you say your name was, dear?" She questioned once they had passed into the labyrinth of the hospital's hallways.

"Sohma Yuki. I apologize if I've caused any trouble."

She laughed. "Not at all! But I didn't hear anything about Kozue being admitted again. And certainly not so soon after the last time."

Her evident concern made him feel guilty. "No, she hasn't. I apologize for the misunderstanding. I was hoping that you would allow me to speak with you."

Her dark eyed flashed curiosity. "Oh? Well then, I was just on my way to the cafeteria. Why don't you have a cup of tea with me?"

* * *

"It seems that I've been remiss in my manners." She said once they had settled comfortably into one of the booths in the hospital's cafeteria. She stirred little packets of sugar into a paper cup of tea that steamed steadily. "I'm Tsubasa Hikaru. And you met my husband Kei, the other day."

"Ah, yes! I was also hoping I could apologize for interrupting his game."

She chuckled, waving a hand like crinkled paper in the air. "Don't think a thing about it, dear. You saved him from another loss. He's ever teaching Kozue card games and once she learns all the rules she beats him flat every time. Nothing gets him quite as riled up." Her eyes laughed.

"How did you meet Miss Amatsuka?"

"Hmm? Oh, it must have been…about three years ago. The first time she was admitted to the hospital. My husband has a very delicate heart condition and so he's admitted here permenantly. Since those first incidents when she was admitted she's put in the room with Kei every time."

Yuki started in surprise. "Every time?"

Hikaru's regard became speculative now and she set her arm against the table and leaned forward in a conspiratorial manner. "How well do you know Kozue, dear?"

He flushed in embaressment but looked away calmly. "Not well, really. I've spent some time with her but I can never figure out what she's thinking or what she's going to do. She won't talk much about herself and her actions are contradictory."

Mrs. Tsubasa clicked her tongue against her teeth sympathetically. "Poor boy. You've picked a difficult road. Kozue isn't an easy girl to figure out." She leaned back again, looking sorry now. "To tell the truth, Kei and I know her little better."

"But…I thought you've known her for three years."

"Oh, we have. But you see, Kozue does nothing but jokes and plays around us." See his confusion she sighed, shaking her head. "Perhaps I'd better explain. The first time we met Kozue she'd been hospitalized after getting into a car accident. It was far more serious then the one you came to pick her up afterwards and she remained her for almost two weeks. She was very quiet at first during those days. I felt so sorry for the poor girl and I tried speaking to her but she wouldn't say a word. I could babel on and on and she wouldn't say a word. Well my husband told me to just leave her be but I'm a stubborn old woman. I just kept on talking away, chattering her ear off for that whole first week. By the second I thought it was hopeless. My throat was all about killing me in protest and maybe I was faltering in my words because next thing I know that girl's offering me a glass of water with the little smirk she can get and amusement written plain as day on her face. Well after that she started responding a bit and I was happy as a peach, you know. But then I made the mistake of asking about her family and she just shut down. Closed up like a clam and nothing I could do roused her. Well I was miserable and Kei saw that. Bless his heart, he strode right over to the girl and announced he was gonna teach her to play whist. Well he taught her and I stopped asking about personal things and after a while she started speaking again." She smiled at him ruefully. "So you see I really don't know much about her either."

"How many times has she been admitted since then?"

A brief moment of silence passed as Hikaru dipped into the well of her memory. "I couldn't say for sure. Thirty, perhaps almost forty times." She shook her head gently. "I can tell you one thing, that I think may help greatly. In all those times that girl's been here she's only had two visitors beside yourself."

"Who?"

"Well, that first time a woman came by. She said she was a teacher at Kozue's school. Aramoto-sensei she called herself. Well Kozue just refused to see her. She went into the worst fit and didn't settle until the woman left. A few months later there was a girl, a student at the same school judging by her uniform. Well, Kozue'd been taken for a check-up then and the girl just left a letter and rushed off without seeing her. I left the letter on Kozue's pillow and the next morning I saw it in the trash bin when the nurse came to collect them."

"What about her parents?"

"I'm told she lives with just her mother. But that woman…I've never…never once seen her." She looked miserable, expressive eyes dark with sadness.


	9. Implicating Concerns

**CHAPTER NINE  
**_Implicating Concerns_

"_When one has devoted oneself to the story of the Soul and its Salvation, as I have, one recognizes similar instances; they are innumerable... she wanders, displaced, like a ghost through all the ages, taking on multiple guises, transforming herself... only rarely does the Princess appear as herself, and only when the final stages of the purification process are near completion...and she waits, unaware, for the moment of her Salvation._

_But the Princess still languishes under the curse of the Witch Poisonbreath, the thunder of the evil hour still reverberates in the rubble-filled Opal Palace, and my King, shackled in leaden dream-chains, still lies in the devastated hall._

_I wanted only to try to live in accordance with the promptings that came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult?"_

**_&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&-&_**

There were times, when she imagined very hard, that she could hear a voice welcoming home. The door clicked open and a pair of dark eyes lifted from the computer screen. Glazed and lifeless, the film of work and fatigue melted away and those eyes warmed when they found her face. A pair of blood red lips became a garnet smile.

'Did you have fun at ballet?'

"Yes mother." Kozue spoke to the darkness of the empty room.

A crack of thunder made her turn from the unseeing observation of the declining wall. She glanced back over her shoulder and glimpsed her reflection in the hallway's mirror. She remembered her time as a child when she stood in this very room and saw, in place of her own reflection, Emily's face staring back at her from that same glass. But now her image rippled and faded, and there stood her mother with her, with their arms around each other, smiling with pride. The progress of the mayhem within the city, the constant demands of her mother's corporation, whatever successes or failures awaited them in the future –it all began with her, her presence seemed to say. Whatever flimsy bit of whatever made her different from everyone around her.

But because it was fake, all that did was make her poor little Kozue. And she was no one's 'poor little thing'.

So she broke the mirror and went to bed with cuts on the back of her fingers.

* * *

Unlike usual, Yuki hadn't waited for Kyo and Tohru before leaving the house. Instead he had made apologies to Tohru and slipped out on his own as soon as he'd pulled his uniform on. He wanted to talk to Kozue. The talk he'd had with Hikaru the previous evening had only created more questions and even more curiosities. Yuki wasn't sure how many of his inquiries she'd answer, or if she'd answer any at all but he'd at least try.

The morning was overcast, huge gray clouds dimming the sun, swollen with the threat of rain. Tohru had tucked an umbrella into his school bag for him and he was relieved because he would have forgotten it otherwise. The school yard was only barely populated when he entered it, but by the time he got past students and teachers in the hallways he was the last to class.

"It seems that Miss Amatsuka will be absent today." Their teacher made only half-hearted attempt to hide his relief as he read the words on the paper.

The rest of class was, similarly, unconcerned by the implication of the words. Although, since that first day, Kozue had done nothing to antagonize either teacher or class, no one could forget that first day. Neither did they miss the air of self assurance and superiority that Kozue often affected with such ease. For this reason they often watched Amatsuka as if she were a beast in a flimsy cage. A half tamed panther that might change its mind about civilization at any moment.

"Well, then class. Open your books---Ah, yes Mr. Sohma?"

Yuki hadn't even realized he'd stood up until the teacher's confused gaze was fixed on him. His hand was half suspended in air and he glanced at it for a moment as if he'd never before seen his own fingers. Why was he up?

"I'd like to be excused please."

"Oh. Well…ah….is it very important?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, alright then. Go ahead."

Kozue wasn't in class. She wasn't in school. He had seen her walk out before, but she had been coming in consistently since she'd found out his secret. Had she gotten into one of her accidents again? Was she in the hospital?

His stride lengthened and became quicker. It carried him out of the school and onto the main streets. He was propelled half by instinct while the other part of his brain tried to rationalize his behavior. He was worried about Amatsuka. But she was blackmailing him. Something was going on with her. But she'd caused nothing but trouble. He didn't want her to get hurt.

The hospital rose up at the end of the block and he strode through the lobby to the receptionist's desk.

"I'm here to see Amatsuka, please."

It was a different woman than the previous night, but the same one he had spoken to the first time he'd come to see Kozue. When the Head Teacher had sent him. She gave him a look of near tangible surprise, lowering the magazine that covered half her face.

"Amatsuka Kozue?"

"Yes."

"But…she hasn't been checked in since the evening you picked her up. Did something happen?"

It took him a while to comprehend the full implication of her statement. Kozue wasn't here? Then why wasn't she at school? "No. Nothing. I beg your pardon." He paused with indecision before adding. "Would you have her home address on file?"

The receptionist's dark eyes turned wary and she spoke as if weighing each word. "Well…yes. But we aren't permitting to give out the personal information of patients."

Yuki blew out a heavy sigh and leaned against the desk. Splaying one hand on the countertop he let his mouth slide into a winsome smile. "Please?"

"Ah…well…" Her twenty-something's resolve crumbled beneath the Sohma charm. "Maybe if we just keep it a secret."

* * *

She had just finished bandaging her hand when the doorbell rang. Sleeping with the cuts had been a bad idea. The blood had dried hard to her skin and it had taken her nearly half an hour to clean it away to her satisfaction. Pleasantly, however, during the night she had rolled over to sleep with her head atop it leaving it numb with the coming daylight and so there was little pain when she applied the disinfectant and salve. With four of her fingers wrapped in snowy white gauze she descended the stairs towards the front of the house.

Even drifting, fleetingly, past the hallway that led to her mother's study she could hear the clicking of keys. Kozue had forgotten she had the day off, but even on her brake Mrs. Amatsuka did not stop working. She never stopped working. Never stopped making new experiments. Kozue was sure the woman was not aware she hadn't gone to school that morning. She was positive she hadn't heard the doorbell either.

She didn't bother to check through the peephole that it was. Anyone intent on causing trouble would be welcomed with open arms, as far as she was concerned. Any sort of goblin of boogeyman that walked during the daytime might have well picked a target in the Amatsuka house.

Instead of a monster, she got The Prince.

She savored the brief moments she could feel the tingle of surprise. The warm chill of shock and disbelief, like snow down the back of her shirt. Even under a dark sky he was a glowing figure. Prominently good and kind and with all his flaws he was still flawless. An overwhelming resentment brought her back to full sobriety and she regarded him through a mask of ice, lifting an eyebrow coolly.

"I underestimated you. You're as smart as they say, Sohma Yuki." She smiled but felt graceless and awkward in her stonewash shorts and her t-shirt. "Did you come to erase my mind?"

"You didn't come to school."

There was that ice cube about. Sudden and affecting as a jolt of lightening. He was unaware, blissfully unaware, of how his simple statement had affected her. Her smile became grim and she swung the door wide. "Come in."

She turned away as he stepped through the threshold, shutting the door behind him, and slipped his shoes from his feet. Kozue didn't wait, but instead began making her way back through the huge front hall and towards the stairs. At a pace quickened to catch him, Yuki followed her.

"Where are we going?"

"My bedroom."


End file.
